run to seed

Idioms  

1. Also, go to seed. Become devitalized or worn out; deteriorate, as in I went back to visit my old elementary school, and sadly, it has really run to seed, or The gold medalist quickly went to seed after he left competition. This term alludes to plants that, when allowed to set seed after flowering, either taste bitter, as in the case of lettuce, or do not send out new buds, as is true of annual flowers. Its figurative use dates from the first half of the 1800s.

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Example Sentences

Catherine, meanwhile, had run to seed and spent as much time as possible lying in bed eating sweets.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 1, 2026

It was covered with high, coarse, prairie grass, and its occasional nodding clusters of prairie flowers run to seed.

From Scenes and Andventures in the Semi-Alpine Region of the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas by Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe

The doctrine has run to seed, as it were, among this people.

From India, Its Life and Thought by Jones, John P. (John Peter)

He had barely sat down before his clerk a thin, gray-haired man, high-nosed, with a look of breeding run to seed, came in, and closed the door behind him.

From The Great House by Weyman, Stanley John

"Yet, Miguel, how often have I said there is good in you—an apprehension of the beauty of a religious life—if only you would not allow it to run to seed."

From Glories of Spain by Wood, Charles W. (William)